Suspicion
by breather89
Summary: When Mike falls ill, he has a replacement take over. But the children and May-Li start to notice there is something strange about this person. When bizarre events begin happening, they know that something is horribly wrong.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

When May-Li got to Ashdene Ridge early for her shift, she noticed the door was unlocked.

Curiously, she walked in and noticed that someone was in the office. Opening the door, she saw a tall man with slightly long, grey hair. He was in his late fifties or early sixties and wore a red jumper, black coat and grey trousers. He smiled when he saw May-Li and introduced himself.

"Anthony Dunstan," he said with a crackly, hoarse voice, "I'm Mr Milligan's temp."

May-Li raised an eyebrow. "Mike didn't say anything about a temp."

He got a card out of his pocket and told her, "Sorry, Mr Milligan had an accident last night. Car accident. He'll be fine, but he'll be off his feet for a while. I'm here for a couple of weeks, nothing major."

Mr Dunstan gave a very weird smile to May-Li, who thought that he was really creepy. But, she thought, the card looked genuine and she could call the number on there, the district's number, to confirm this.

"Well," she told him, "I'll get the kids in the living room and we can all be introduced." She gave a weak smile, but he nodded, pleased.

But even as May-Li left, she still thought that Mr Dunstan was slightly weird.

When everyone was in the living room, Mr Dunstan came in as May-Li explained to them.

"Everybody," she told them, "this is Anthony Dunstan. Mike is in hospital at the moment, nothing serious, but for now, Anthony is here and will be helping me. Now, any questions?"

Johnny asked, "When will Mike come back?"

Mr Dunstan answered before May-Li could. "Couple of weeks. Nothing more."

May-Li turned back to the children, unnerved, and told them, "I phoned the district manager and she said that Mr Dunstan will be here while Mike's in hospital. I haven't spoken to him yet, but it's fine."

Kazima asked, "So why is he here?"

"Kazima!" May-Li frowned.

"No," Kazima answered, "this is not right."

Mr Dunstan didn't seem offended. Instead, he chuckled slightly and told them, "I know it's a bit strange and unsettling having someone new here, but I assure you, I am perfectly capable of handling a group of care children. I _am_ qualified, after all."

But even as they walked out, the children all looked at Mr Dunstan and couldn't help thinking there was something unusual about him.

That night, Mr Dunstan was on night shift, but since it was his first night and May-Li didn't want the children unsettled, she stayed that night.

In the kitchen, she looked as Mr Dunstan seemed to make himself a coffee and sit down.

He was endlessly talking about all the places he'd been to when he worked, up and down the country, as well as when he was a student (May-Li didn't dare ask how long ago that was) and seemed to know a lot about places like Brazil and Italy and Arabia and China. However unusual he was, he seemed to be well-travelled.

Even so, she was really bored. Mr Dunstan only seemed to talk about himself.

In her room, Tee was staring at the ceiling, frustrated with the whole situation. Mr Dunstan seemed kind, but maybe it was just the way he smiled all the time that made her think there was something about him.

Earlier she'd noticed he was on his mobile quite a lot. She could barely hear what he said and besides, it seemed to be in Italian.

But as she rolled over in bed, she was unaware that something was happening outside.

The footsteps were silent as they went up to Mo's bedroom. In his bed, Mo snored as he turned over, not quite noticing when the door opened.

Maybe, if he had, this would have ended a lot quicker.

The next morning, when everyone came downstairs for breakfast, May-Li looked round at them all and asked, "Where's Mo?"

Mr Dunstan, who was drinking out of a beer can, which May-Li disagreed with, since she knew it was against the rules, answered, "He's a bit sick. He's upstairs. You can go and check on him if you want."

May-Li went upstairs and knocked on Mo's door. "Mo?" she asked, concerned.

There was a grunting noise from inside. Obviously, it seemed as if Mo wasn't feeling too good. "Mo, are you all right?" she asked. A groan came from inside his room. "No..." it didn't quite seem as if he was all right; his voice seemed rather thick.

"OK, Mo, Anthony will come if you're still feeling unwell by lunchtime, OK?"

"All right." There was another groan from in there. May-Li was puzzled. Mo probably had a cold or something, his voice was far too deep.

When Bailey was outside, after playing football with Tyler and Harry, who soon got bored, he looked over the fence.

There was a red van parked there. It didn't have windows and there was a padlock on the back doors. He didn't know if there was anyone parked in it, but it still seemed creepy all the same.

Meanwhile, Mr Dunstan was in the office, on the phone. He was listening to the idiot on the other end. He was gabbling in Italian, making Mr Dunstan furious. Soon, the client asked, "Stasera?"

Mr Dunstan replied, confidently, "Stasera."

That afternoon, May-Li stood outside Mo's room, holding a cup of coffee. "Mo?" she asked, knocking on the door, "Are you all right?"

"No." She heard a faint groan. Poor guy, she thought, he must be really sick. "Mo, I've got some coffee here, would you like me to leave it outside?"

She just heard grunting again and, raising an eyebrow, answered, "OK." She left it there and then walked downstairs.

Bailey was still in the garden when he saw Mr Dunstan come out. Curious, Bailey watched him as he went down to where the bins were. Mr Dunstan then opened the side gate and began talking to someone very quickly.

When Bailey had come round and noticed Mr Dunstan talking to a man in a blue safety suit, Mr Dunstan turned as fast as lightning, grabbing Bailey's hand.

"You should have stayed where you were, boy," he hissed in bailey's face.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

**A/N: I haven't seen anything beyond 'Stuck With You', so bear with me. I have an issue getting it over here.**

That night, Kazima was in her room, annoyed at Carmen's snoring. As she listened, she could hear other things. Bangs and crashes and starching. Curious, she got up. Going over to the door, she heard voices.

They were unlike anything she'd heard. They seemed to be foreign. Rushing to Carmen's bed, she shook the girl awake.

"W-what?" Carmen muttered, as she turned round and looked up at Kazima.

"There are people outside," Kazima hissed, "they could have broken in!"

Carmen groaned, getting up and pulling hair from her face. "Are you sure?" she asked, before the door slowly opened.

In stunned silence, the girls saw two men, dressed in black, enter. They instantly saw, in the dim light from the hallway, that the girls were awake. Running forward, before either girl could scream, they lifted them up.

Clamping gloved hands over their mouths, the men wrestled the girls onto their beds, before a familiar figure came in. Mr Dunstan.

Mr Dunstan looked over at them, moaning. He snapped at one of the men in some foreign language, to which Mr Dunstan then snarled.

Then he looked over at Carmen. "Well, lucky girl, you're first. Say nighty-night." He teased, before sliding a syringe into her arm.

Kazima squealed as she saw Carmen's eyes slowly close. The man holding her then let go of her mouth, before laying her quietly down on the bed. Kazima, knowing she was headed to the same fate, kicked more violently. Life on the street had taught her to be tough and never expect anything, but even so, this was nothing she had seen before.

Mr Dunstan looked down on her, as she fought against the man restraining her. "Time for a little sleep," Mr Dunstan muttered, before putting his hand in his jacket.

Kazima took her chance.

Biting down on the man's hand, she dug her elbow into his flab, before running toward the door, screaming at the top of her lungs. Mr Dunstan ran to the door and slipped through, before slamming it. The two men grabbed Kazima again, one pushing her roughly down on her bed, squeezing her jaw shut, while the other fumbled on the floor for the syringe.

May-Li, having heard the screaming, had run up the stairs, when she saw Mr Dunstan standing outside. "What's going on?" she asked. Mr Dunstan breathed through his teeth, before answering, "I think the girls caught Mo's cold. Don't worry, they're fine."

May-Li raised an eyebrow to that, before walking downstairs again.

The next morning, when Ryan and Johnny were watching the TV and Harry and Floss were in the garden, May-Li started getting lunch ready for everyone. She frowned, looking up. Mr Dunstan was outside, on his phone again. What language this time?

Then Tyler came in. "Where's Bailey?" he asked. "I haven't seen him all day." May-Li answered. In fact, she couldn't remember seeing him since after tea.

Then Mr Dunstan came in. "Anthony," May-Li asked, "where's Bailey?"

Mr Dunstan's eyes rolled up quickly, a sign he was thinking of something. "Oh, he got the cold as well. Don't worry, he's fine." It just seemed so brushed-off. May-Li decided she might need to call the number on his card again.

When she finally got through, a female voice, the same as last time, answered. May-Li asked, "Oh, hi, this is Ashdene Ridge. I have a few questions about Mr Dunstan."

The voice told her, "Fire away."

May-Li asked, "Where does he come from? I'd like to see his CV."

The female voice breathed. "Well, I can't give it out at random-"

"There's something wrong with the kids here. Four of them have got colds. Is he sick or something?"

A small silence. Then a giggle. "No, he's fine," she told her, "but he has just come off six weeks with a bad cold. Nothing too serious, but he needs some cold medicine."

"OK," May-Li answered, starting to put the phone down, when the girl muttered in Mandarin. "Stupid lady."

May-Li then put it back to her ear and snapped, "I am not stupid." Then she slammed the phone down, before leaving the office.

She later went into Kazima and Carmen's room, carrying a tray with two cups of coffee. "Girls, I'm just leaving the coffee here, so if you want one, you can have some."

The girls were burrowed under their duvets, so May-Li had no idea if they were awake.

As she left, she saw a hand leave Carmen's bed and grab a cup. May-Li raised an eyebrow when she saw that Carmen's hand had a glove on and was wearing a different pyjama top than the previous night; instead of her pink top, she had on a purple long-sleeved one.

Shrugging, May-Li simply closed the door and walked out.

Looking out of the window, she saw that the red van from yesterday was still parked there. When she got out, she knocked on the window. The driver, a bushy-haired man in his forties, wearing a green checked shirt and a blue, sleeveless jacket, rolled down the window and asked in an eastern European accent, "What do you want, love?"

"You've been parked outside for two days and I want to know what you want." May-Li answered. The man put away a foreign newspaper he'd been reading and told her, "Look love, I just deliver for this area. You want to complain, call my manager." He handed her a small, yellow card, but May-Li didn't take any notice.

Instead, she still looked at him and asked, "Can I see the back of your van?"

His eyes widened. "Against company policy." But she demanded, "I'd like to see the back of your van."

He shrugged, then shouted into the back, "Viktor, show the love the inside."

"No need to shout, you fat pig." She heard a voice mumble, before the back of the van unlocked.

It was unsurprising. Just a small briefcase, some suitcases squashed on top of each other and some shoeboxes, lined up. Viktor, a tall man in his early twenties, with two days' growth of beard and an almost bald head, sat on a suitcase. "Is that fine, love?"

May-Li took it with a pinch of salt, before leaving. She just knew that this was related to Mr Dunstan, though she wasn't quite sure what.

Inside, Tee was at the computer, when Mr Dunstan came up. "Ah, Tee, could I just use this for a second?"

"Why can't you use the one in the office?" Tee asked. Mr Dunstan grumpily answered, "Look, I need to check something. Now." Tee raised an eyebrow before she got off.

Mr Dunstan all but pushed her, sitting down and shoving a memory stick in the computer. Tee just decided Mr Dunstan was being rude and walked out.

Harry was just leaving his room when he saw somebody dash out quickly from the boy's bathroom. The figure, wearing only a dressing gown and slippers, with the hood up, rushed into Mo's room. Harry, curious, opened the door.

"Mo?" he asked. When he looked in, he just saw Mo under the duvet. "Mo, are you OK?" he asked.

Then a gruff, thick voice, one that sounded nothing like Mo's, told him, "You're next."

Harry, confused, asked, "What do you mean?" but then he heard a loud and hearty cough come from underneath the duvet. He heard Mo tell him, "You're next."

Harry asked, "Are you feeling OK, Mo? You sound really sick." But then Mo coughed loudly again and Harry left.

Come to think of it, the boy thought as he went back to his room, the cough sounded as if it were forced on.

That night, Harry lay awake, wondering what Mo had meant. Then, he decided to get up and walk round. When he was up, he noticed that Bailey's door was open. Wide open. Inside, Harry called, "Bailey?" before turning on the light.

The bed was neatly made up. The curtains were open. A ladder lead down to the back garden. He looked down and saw, to his horror, that someone was climbing up!

Harry ran to the door, but Mr Dunstan stood there, arms folded behind him, looking down at him grimly. "Well, well, well," he murmured, stepping into the room, causing Harry to walk back, nearly bumping into the man that had come up the ladder, a man in his early twenties with two days' growth of beard and an almost bald head, "we shouldn't be up at this time."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

In the morning, May-Li got up again and set the table. Just as she did, she noticed something was on the kitchen counter. A small, black purse. When she opened it, she saw some coins inside. Euros.

What exactly was going on? She knew that Mr Dunstan spoke several different languages – she had found handbooks in his bag when he dumped it on the office desk, on Italian, French, German, Russian, Bulgarian, Polish, Flemish and Finnish – but she didn't know if he carried foreign money with him.

She went to the front room, where she saw Mr Dunstan come downstairs. He looked quite tired and she wondered how much sleep he'd had. His sleeves were rolled up and she saw that he had lots of scratches on his arms, including one that had a plaster over it.

"Are you OK?" she asked. Mr Dunstan mumbled, not quite understanding what she meant, before he looked at his arms. "Oh, I was sorting my roses earlier."

But May-Li didn't buy it.

"I know you're doing something to the kids. You're making them ill and the lady on the other end said you needed cold medicine. I don't know if you're doing it on purpose, but you're making them sick."

Mr Dunstan told her, shaking his hands, "Don't listen to Miranda, she always jabbers on. Anyway, I'll take the medicine, just give me time. I've got paperwork."

"I've hardly seen you do anything," May-Li argued, "you put your feet up on tables, you spend ages on your phone, Tee said you were rude, you made the kids sick. Just tell me what's going on. Are you really made out to be a social worker?"

Mr Dunstan simply snorted, then pushed past her, going to the office.

Tee was right, May-Li thought, he's just rude. He's worse than the children.

May-Li went upstairs, where she saw that Bailey's door was open. Going in, she noticed how tidy it was. Maybe being ill did something for him, she thought. Then, as she looked underneath the bed for any mislaid clothes, she noticed something. A small syringe.

She picked it up and examined it. A weird, dark liquid seemed to be inside. Then she noticed something else under the bed. It was a phone. Bailey's phone.

As she turned it over, she saw that it had been broken. As if a hammer had crushed it.

She took the items downstairs and stormed into the office. Slamming them on the desk, she asked Mr Dunstan, "Do you know what these are?"

"How should I know?" he snapped angrily.

"Well, this is Bailey's phone. It's been crushed." May-Li folded her arms and held her head on one side. "Something is up and I'm going to get to the bottom of it."

In Mo's room, May-Li told him, even though he was still under the duvet, "I'm going to clean your room, since you won't."

As she tidied the room, she kept an eye on the bed at all times. Although the duvet sometimes moved, she didn't see him get out. After tidying everything up, she walked out, shutting the door.

That was it. Mo would throw a fit if anyone else touched his things. Something _was_ up and she didn't think it was a cold.

She did the same in Carmen and Kazima's room, noticing that neither girl got out of bed, despite the fact that Carmen's notepad was on the floor with a ton of drawings in it. The only movement she saw was when Carmen's hand came out from under the duvet and grabbed a drink, instantly pulling it under.

The children were acting really strange and May-Li knew that this was something that she'd never seen before. So it had to be something that Mr Dunstan did. He was fairly strange, as well as being new. She just had to know.

Outside Mo's room, she heard a voice. It sounded deep and rusty. Perhaps Mo was still sick? As she listened closely, she realised she couldn't understand what he was saying. It wasn't just his voice; he was talking in another language!

She knocked on the door, causing Mo to stop talking.

"Mo?" she asked. Then she heard the thick, deep voice. "I'm sick, please go."

She raised an eyebrow, but still left. As she was cleaning Ryan's room, she noticed something amiss about the card she had been given, when she sat down and looked at it.

It was the same phone number as the one on Mr Dunstan's card.

Immediately, she knew something was wrong.

She called Mike's number on her mobile, even though she knew she shouldn't. Pacing the hall, biting her nails, she started quickly wondering exactly what had happened to the children.

Mike's voicemail. She sat down, putting a hand to her head, trying to think. What was going on?

Mr Dunstan watched her from the hallway outside. It seemed as if she was too suspicious. He had to work faster.

Getting his phone out, he carefully walked down the stairs, trying not to make a noise, then spoke. "Codice rosso," he hissed, "ripeto, codice rosso."

**A/N: I decided to cut Chapter Three in two to add suspense. Review if you think you know what's going on. All theories accepted.**


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Mr Dunstan was desperate. The woman was interfering. If he didn't act fast, his plan would be ruined.

Soon, he called a house meeting. He watched the children on the sofas, thinking about what to say.

Tyler, Jody, Floss, Toni, Billie, Tee, Johnny and Ryan looked back at him as he stood tall.

"Where's May-Li?" Johnny asked. "She's upstairs," Mr Dunstan answered, remembering that she was in Ryan's room, "but I need to say a few things. Tonight, there are going to be some workmen here, tidying up the kitchen, so don't disturb anyone."

"Why?" Jody asked, "What's happened with the kitchen?"

Mr Dunstan leered over at her. "What I say goes, do you understand that, little girl?"

"You can't talk to her like that!" Tyler shouted back, but Mr Dunstan smirked. "You don't have authority. You're mine to do with as I wish. Now, go to your rooms. Now."

As they left, Jody told Tyler, "He's just horrid. He's not simply annoying and demanding, he's horrid."

"Even Denis didn't speak to us like that," Tyler murmured.

Johnny interrupted, saying, "Whatever he wants, I don't think it's anything good." Tee nodded, holding onto him.

When they'd got upstairs, Jody and Tyler noticed that Harry's bedroom door was open. Peering in, they saw the duvet was shifting round and moaning from inside. Jody asked Tyler, as they left, "Do you think that Mr Dunstan made them ill?"

Tyler shrugged. "I don't know."

Then Jody asked, "Do you think he gave them a really bad cold virus or something? I don't know how bad they are. I mean, maybe he's using us as human guinea pigs."

Tyler stopped right there.

Jody argued, "I know it sounds stupid, but I found a syringe in Carmen and Kazima's room, by the door. I think he's deliberately making us ill and testing on us or something."

That night, in their beds, none of the children slept. They kept listening.

The builders downstairs had simply barged in with a ladder and paint, mumbling in a foreign language and simply painting the ceiling with a roller. They also seemed to not be good at it and also took biscuits and coffee without asking first.

Mr Dunstan snapped at the children if they came near.

When Jody had been going to the den, she saw Floss argue that she wanted a biscuit. But Mr Dunstan had told her, "They're busy, so you have to wait!" he had nearly snapped at her, causing her to run upstairs. But Jody simply frowned at Mr Dunstan, looking him right in the eye, before going off.

May-Li stirred on the bed, groaning slightly. Then she opened her eyes slowly. It was dark. What happened?

She looked over, with blurred vision, at her cup of coffee. She'd had one after making up Ryan's room. She thought fast, remembering that Mr Dunstan had been in the kitchen when she'd made it. Was that what happened?

She put her hand to her head, sitting up. Looking round, she heard voices outside, in the hallway.

Within seconds, the main light was on in the hallway, followed by sharp, loud screams.

The noise startled Johnny, who sat up in bed, his head towards the door. That was Floss.

More screams. Toni and Billie.

As he reached the door, there was a scream that made a chill go down his spine.

Tee.

He threw the door open, to be greeted with a headlock from a very tall person. The person was also holding Toni by her hair. She was pulling at his hands to try and get off.

"Tee!" Johnny shouted as the man dragged them to the stairs. Johnny struggled, but the man seemed to have unbearable strength, holding the two like that while walking down the stairs.

Upstairs, Jody hid under her bed. Looking out of her door, she saw Ryan's feet. He seemed to be fighting against someone wearing black trousers and black boots. She heard them shouting at each other.

Ryan demanded, "What are you doing?" the other person answered, "What I'd ask is, what will I do with you?" the other person sounded foreign. Their accent was thick and heavy.

Then Ryan's feet were being dragged along the ground.

Tyler saw, from under his bed, Billie held in a headlock by Mr Dunstan. Mr Dunstan was also grabbing Floss by the arm. "Hurry up, there's two more!" Mr Dunstan snapped.

May-Li, hearing the commotion, began to walk to the door, but her vision was so dreadful she could barely see the door. Her legs felt like they were being held down in water by lead.

Johnny was now by the back door, the man refusing to release him. But Johnny grasped onto the door handle and pulled it towards him, just as the man reached it.

Then Johnny tripped up the man, twisting his leg around the man's. The man let go of Johnny, who ran upstairs, screaming, "Tee!"

When he got up, he ran into May-Li, causing both of them to fall over in the hallway. Just after they did, Mr Dunstan stood above them, smiling.

As they looked, they saw he was grasping Billie and Floss. Mr Dunstan smiled, ignoring the girls' protests. "It seems I have the upper hand," Mr Dunstan spoke softly. In the hand that was holding Billie in a headlock, he held a small, red, round cylinder. He pressed a button, causing a blade to fly out.

It was so close to Billie, but she gasped softly, stopping her struggles.

Johnny asked, "What do you want?"

Mr Dunstan sneered. "The question is, boy, what will happen to you?"

Johnny backed away from May-Li and stood up slowly. "Where's Tee?" he asked Mr Dunstan.

Before Mr Dunstan could reply, Johnny heard a shout from outside. It was Tee.

Mr Dunstan told Johnny, "You won't need to worry about us for much longer." He looked out the window. "I've committed murder before, I can do it again."

Johnny took advantage of the distraction.

Pulling May-Li up, he ran downstairs, holding her hand. Racing, heart pounding, to the kitchen, he saw the door was wide open. He ran round to the side-gate, where he saw the door to a large, white, windowless van, parked right by the other van, had the side door slam shut.

In the light from the van, Johnny saw a tall man slamming the door, while he heard footsteps come after him.

It all began to happen too fast. Johnny was on his back, on the wet ground, as the tall man came back round.

The tall man took Billie and Floss, trembling and struggling, from Mr Dunstan, who instantly leaned over Johnny.

Before Johnny could take in what had happened, Mr Dunstan got a syringe out of his jacket pocket and slid it into Johnny's arm. Johnny's eyes glazed over slightly, before he fell asleep. May-Li, her legs wobbling, stared right at the massive blur that she knew was Mr Dunstan.

"You... she mumbled, "what...do you...want?" But then, the tall man came back and lifted her up by her sides as easily as if she were a doll.

Mr Dunstan pulled Johnny up, lifting him over his shoulder.

Mr Dunstan told May-LI, "He'll be out for a couple of hours. What I gave to you was strong, but it'll completely wear off in a few hours. But by then, we might be far away."

He said something foreign to the tall man, who began to carry May-Li. Mr Dunstan opened the shed door and placed Johnny on the floor. He then got a thin, frayed grey rope out of his pocket and began tying Johnny's hands underneath his knees.

He told May-Li, "You are trouble. Best to make sure you don't get out of here. Viktor will come and get the kid tomorrow. If you're lucky, we'll call up the police to get you tomorrow. If you're not..."

He chuckled, evilly, before Viktor forced May-Li onto her stomach, pulling out another rope and binding her hands behind her. May-Li resisted, but Viktor was strong and besides, she was still drugged. Then Viktor pulled her under some clutter and pushed the sofa in front.

May-Li asked, "What are you going to do with the children?" Mr Dunstan simply laughed and answered, "That's for me to know and for you to find out."

In the building, Tyler dared to get out from under his bed. The light was still on, but as a precaution, he crawled along the carpet. When he reached Jody's room, he saw she was already out, standing by her window.

She turned and saw him. "They've just driven off," she told him. "Did you get the licence?" Tyler asked, standing up and coming over. Jody frowned at him. "Not from fifteen feet up!" she argued. Then she told him, "We've got to get help."

They went downstairs, noticing the light from the computer screen in the office. When they entered, they saw that Mr Dunstan had been looking at a news site. They read the article, from a local paper, with horror.

_BODY FOUND IN RIVER_

_Earlier this morning, the body of a white male was discovered floating in by the Rhododendron Bridge. The body was discovered by dog-walkers at ten when they saw it in the reeds. The deceased had no identification or clothing and is suspected to have been dead for around three days._

_Anyone with information should contact the nearest police station._

A chill went down Tyler and Jody's spines as they realised what was going on.

These men were deadly. Worse, they were completely alone.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Four

About two hours later, while it was still pitch-black outside, May-Li began to struggle again. Her vision was much better now, though it was hard to tell in the darkness.

She also heard Johnny snoring, which worried her. What could she do? How could she get out?

This was the worst situation she had ever been in. She almost felt like crying. But she didn't know how she could escape, or even where the children were. She just knew she had to get away.

Inside, Jody and Tyler were rummaging through the desk. They were trying to find evidence, any evidence, against Mr Dunstan.

But they came up empty-handed.

Jody found a brochure for Baltic cruises, but even then, it shed very little light on what they wanted. Then Tyler had an idea. "We could call the number on his business card. He left it on the desk."

After ringing up, they waited tensely as it rung three times.

Then a woman answered. "Hello, can I help?" she asked.

Tyler listened eagerly in the background, hoping to hear something. "Hello?" the woman asked.

Still, nothing. Then a squeal from somewhere. "Hello!" the woman demanded again. Then Tyler heard a squawk coming from the other end. The woman slammed it down before Tyler hung up.

"Well?" Jody asked. Tyler looked at her. "I heard seagulls, so they can't be that far away. I'd say it's a safe bet they're still in town."

Then Jody and Tyler went outside, to see what the abductors could have left behind. Hearing moaning coming from the shed, they headed over.

Tyler opened the door and looked in. Flashing a torch, he went over to Johnny, who was still fast asleep. Jody asked, "Is Johnny all right?" Then she heard May-Li call out, "I'm here, Jody."

Jody ran over, pushing away some of the clutter. May-Li blinked a few times before asking, "How did you escape?"

Jody lent down, starting to untie May-Li's wrists. "We hid under our beds. I guess there was so much commotion that they miscounted how many there were."

Jody helped May-Li up, before Jody asked, "What's happened to Johnny?"

May-Li went over and helped Tyler drag Johnny over to the sofa. "They drugged him," she answered, "Mr Dunstan did something to the children. They're sick. I guess he took everyone else because he now needed to make them all sick at once."

"But why take them?" Jody asked. Tyler commented, "Yeah, he could have just injected us here."

May-Li answered, "I don't know. But now, I really need to get to Mike."

"Err, May-Li," Jody interrupted, "I think Mr Dunstan killed him."

May-Li paused, looking at Jody with a mixture of sadness and confusion. Jody carried on, "Mr Dunstan was looking at an article about a body being found nearby." Then May-Li told them, "We'd better start looking. These are dangerous people."

Jody asked, "What about calling the police?" May-Li interrupted, "I know I'd normally say call the police, but by the time we get them to believe everything, they could be dead."

When they went back inside, Jody was searching the office again. May-Li and Tyler were looking through the other rooms. She was desperate. Even with the light on, she had trouble finding anything.

After a while, she looked in the shredder. After looking through the paper for over an hour, she still could find nothing. After looking at the paper, she came to a conclusion that they hadn't shredded anything.

Oh well, Jody thought, at least I tried.

She then looked in the filing cabinets. She assumed they wouldn't have taken away all the evidence, since they needed to pick up Johnny later, but she wasn't one hundred per cent sure.

Then she saw, rammed in underneath the files, a squashed brochure. It was about areas in the Baltic; Germany, Denmark, Poland, Belarus, Finland, Norway, Sweden. She raised an eyebrow, but it still didn't lead her anywhere.

Jody decided to look through Mr Dunstan's files. He'd still logged onto the computer, having used Mike's password, but there was absolutely nothing to indicate what was going on.

Upstairs, May-Li and Tyler were looking in all the rooms, just in case. After searching Floss' room, Tyler sat down on the bed. He was worn out.

"We can't find anything," he told May-Li, "these people are good."

May-Li looked at her watch. It was seven past six. "It's dawn soon. I'd better check on Johnny."

When they got down, May-Li shone a torch in the dim light inside. Johnny was still there, just waking up. "May-Li?" he asked, groggily.

May-Li came in, asking, "How are you?" he shrugged. He answered, "Dizzy."

Then he sat up. "Tee!" he shouted, trying to jump off the sofa.

May-Li stopped him, holding him down. "Oh no, mister, you're in no condition to run off."

"But where is she?" he asked, determined.

May-Li told him, "We don't know, but we're trying to look. What we do know is that these are dangerous people. They've killed Mike."

Johnny looked into space, desperate. "Then...what will they do to Tee?"

May-Li looked him in the eye and told him, "I don't know."

They had never felt so helpless as they did then.

Meanwhile, by the docks, Viktor was reading a book, his feet up on the table. In the building they lived in, it was grubby and filled with garbage.

The round table, with three plastic chairs, was in the centre of the front room, with boxes nearby, from market stalls, filled with tins of food and bottles of water. A pile of magazines, in several languages, sat on the table. A small light-bulb hung above him.

Mr Dunstan entered. "Just finished the last one," he told Viktor, in Viktor's language, "we'll be able to get this over with by tomorrow."

Viktor asked, "What about the tall boy we left behind? What do we do with him?"

Mr Dunstan shrugged, answering, "Well, we haven't exactly been able to get him sorted, but we can't leave witnesses?"

Viktor asked, "Can't we do with him what we did with the bald man? That was fun."

Mr Dunstan shook his head. "The thing is, this kid could be useful for us. He's a tall, strong young man, like yourself, Viktor. I'd be surprised if there's more than ten years between the two of you. Now, down to business."

Mr Dunstan got a notepad out and began crossing off the children's names.

"Which one do you want?" Mr Dunstan asked him. Viktor thought about it before he answered, "The one with the ponytail. She's pretty."

Mr Dunstan crossed off Tee's name before telling Viktor, "I think I'll take the ginger girl. She's got a temper that needs taming. And Alexei can have the boy we took."

Then he looked over his notes again, his eyes widening. "Viktor," he asked slowly, trying to not get angry, "how many did we take?"

Viktor counted in his head, before looking pale.

Mr Dunstan called him a rather rude name, before screaming, "You didn't check!"

Then Mr Dunstan called up the stairs, just outside the front room, "Alexei! Van! Now! That _dummkopf_ Viktor missed two!"


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

May-Li, Johnny, Jody and Tyler sat in the minibus, just round the corner from Ashdene Ridge. May-Li was just trying to get her head round this.

"I can't believe he's taken them," she muttered. Jody told her, "None of us did." Johnny was looking out the window. He hadn't said much since they'd left Ashdene Ridge.

Jody reassured Johnny, "We'll find her." But Johnny just couldn't get the sound of Tee screaming out of his head. When he closed his eyes, all he could see was Tee when he'd last seen her; just ten minutes before she was abducted. She'd been in her day clothes, as she was finishing up painting her nails. She'd been happy and smiling.

He didn't want to try and imagine what she could be going through.

Then May-Li fumed. "There must be something we missed. Why would they take them?"

Tyler suggested, "Well, I there was a syringe on the floor. Maybe they made them sick?"

"But that doesn't explain why they took them all at once," May-Li argued.

Jody asked, "Could the fact that Mr Dunstan has a load of handbooks in other languages mean anything?"

May-Li answered, "I can't quite connect that. Maybe if I had a few more clues, it would make sense." Then May-Li cast her mind back to when she had visited their rooms.

Mo. Bailey. Carmen. Kazima. Harry.

Something was different about them, but she couldn't figure out what.

Carmen and Kazima and Harry simply hid under their beds. The illness couldn't have made them too weak to move, as she'd seen Carmen stick her hand out from underneath her duvet…

May-Li jerked her head up as she thought about that. She remembered that Carmen was wearing a glove. But why would she wear a glove in bed? She had also changed her pyjamas. If she'd just been injected, why would she – or anyone else – bother to change her pyjamas?

There was also Mo's voice. It was much deeper and even though he had a cough, that didn't explain it. In fact, now that she thought about it, the coughing seemed forced on, not an actual cough.

Bailey's room.

She explained her thoughts to them. "Bailey's room was tidy when I went in," she concluded, "but, _he wasn't there_. If they made him sick as well, why take him and not bother with the others? Why keep them here and take Bailey?"

Then she gasped as she looked outside. The white van was back. The three men got out and into Ashdene Ridge.

"Right, let's go." May-Li told them. "Where?" Jody asked. May-Li turned as they went out, "We need to see their vans. Maybe there are still clues in there."

The red van was locked firmly, but the white one still had its door open.

Inside was a lot of rust, grey rust from machines. There was a metal bench, as well as black, saggy suitcases.

The four of them tore them open, looking, before Johnny, on his knees, stopped searching. May-Li looked over at him and saw that he'd found some objects.

"Look!" she called and they all saw what Johnny had found.

Carmen's lipstick, Mo's glasses, a pair of slippers that Floss wore. But Johnny wasn't looking at any of that.

With one hand, he pulled out what he'd been looking at.

It was Tee's bra.

He fumed, clenching his fist and muttered, "I'm going to kill him."

Then May-Li put her hands on his shoulders, telling him, "Johnny, you can't go and attack him now. They'll overpower us."

Then he ran a hand down his face, before telling her, in a hoarse voice, "All right."

As they left, going to the other side of the road and running, just in case they saw them, Jody asked, "What are we going to do now?"

May-Li thought. But before she could come up with an answer, she saw the three men coming out. Running back to the minibus, she made sure they were on before she looked round the corner.

The flabby man and the bald man had got in the front. She saw a small child clinging onto Mr Dunstan, as he went in the back. It didn't seem as if Mr Dunstan was forcing them in, this child genuinely looked as if they were willingly getting on.

May-Li recognized Harry's pyjamas. Then she thought of something. Maybe Mo, Carmen and Kazima were still inside.

**A/N: The solution – or part of it – will be revealed in the next chapter, but before then, can you work anything out?**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Miranda looked over the list as she answered calls on the landline. After speaking in Italian, Russian and Polish, she then called the shipping service.

She was fed up of this, but it worked, anyway.

She had seen Mr Dunstan do this to at least two other children's homes. She examined the list of children's homes, then tracked the addresses of the head care workers. She then pretended to be delivering something while Alexei and Viktor broke in.

When the head care worker sent them on their way, they'd steal their phone and keys, as well as lock the door, then take them. Viktor would visit every day to take newspapers.

Miranda now went downstairs and checked the fridge. See if she had everything.

Fruit, vegetables, huge bottles of water, cereal bars, tinned mushy peas, biscuits, fruit packets, cashews, fruit drink, apricot bars, tuna pasta, poppy seed cake, crackers, small packets of honey, marmalade, jam, ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise, pepper, nougat, muesli, sesame bars, chicken Rogan josh, nut cream, mango drink, orange drink.

Some astronaut food also lay in the cupboard; peaches, strawberries, chocolate, strawberry and vanilla ice cream (she remembered getting this in her Christmas stocking when she was in grade school) and peanut butter.

She went to the 'laboratory'; in actuality, a small room with a tiled floor and a table with several drawers. Getting out a syringe, she looked at the vials.

"Let's see," she mumbled, skimming through, "sleeping gas, vaccine against hepatitis B, rabies shot. Yeah, I think the inventory's up-to-date."

Then she went to the back yard, a small, gated area that overlooked the docks. She liked this view, because it made her feel as if she had power over everything below. She could look at people and they would never know someone was spying on them. This made her feel good inside, with a nasty glee.

Then she saw the men come back. Opening the door, she saw both the vans come in. Oh, they hadn't brought the red one back last night. Perhaps they had too much on their hands?

She opened the door, helping Mr Dunstan come in, holding his arm around the shoulders of the young child he lead in. Viktor and Alexei followed.

"Ms Wright," Mr Dunstan addressed her, "the woman knows about us. Three of the children managed to escape. We have to go tonight. Then we fix the woman."

"Run me through this," Miranda told him, shutting the front door and pulling up another plastic chair.

Mr Dunstan answered, "We let the woman and the three children come here. Don't worry, the children we have will be enough bait. Then we ambush them when they try and rescue the kids. We get the three children and take care of them. Then we can fix the woman." He sighed loudly and then gave a smirk. "I fear," he said slowly, "that she may not be allowed to live."

Then he looked at the child with him, who was staring up at Mr Dunstan with wide, scared eyes. He patted them on the shoulders, telling them, "Go upstairs to your room. We can sort everything out tonight."

When May-Li had stopped, they were in the docks car park. The sound of seagulls above made Tyler tell May-Li, "I know they're here."

May-Li complained, "But we don't know which building they're in. There's a ton here. Plus, a number of the guys here are from the Baltic. They have cruises all the time."

Tyler told her, "But we have to try. We need to look round. I can use my cell phone. We can find them soon."

May-Li simply told Tyler, "I only wish it was that simple."

Then she thought. "They'll want to get the others, right? Well, they just took Harry. I think we need to go back and wait. It's worth a try."

When they'd got back to Ashdene Ridge, they went up to the rooms. When they went to the bedrooms, they listened.

In Carmen and Kazima's rooms, they simply saw the girls underneath the duvets. Neither girl said anything, though they moved slightly.

"Carmen? Kazima?" Tyler asked, but neither girl got out of bed. Then he gave a long, loud groan and turned to May-Li. "What can we do?" he asked.

May-Li answered, "Maybe they're too ill to get up."

Then she told them, "I'm going to check on Mo."

Then Kazima gave a loud groan, stirring constantly in her bed. May-Li stopped and turned, watching. But then nothing happened. She frowned and left the room.

Going up to Mo's room, she then opened the door slowly. Mo was there, his hand hanging down off the bed. "Mo?" May-Li asked, moving forward.

She heard a small groan, right before she pulled the duvet off. Her eyes widened when she saw the boy lying there.

It was not Mo.

**A/N: Sorry this chapter's short, but I thought I could end it on the right note. So, were your theories correct?**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Harry lay in the bottom of the iron cage he was in. There was a lot of straw at the bottom, but he was almost completely under a duvet.

For a really long time, he'd lain underneath the duvet, trying not to cry. The last thing he'd remembered was the bald man injecting him with a syringe in Bailey's room, before being carried down a ladder.

He knew that it must have been a long time ago, because he was very hungry. When he had woken up, he had tried to get away, before realising that his hands and ankles had been tied tightly with the same rope and a red bandana was tied through his mouth.

Then Mr Dunstan had come in through the front door. The bald man was with him, holding a large shotgun. Mr Dunstan had opened the large door of the cage, with a key off the table that lay next to it.

Then he'd knelt down by Harry and held his hands together. He had then asked, "We're going to stay calm now, aren't we?" Harry had nodded, before Mr Dunstan pulled the bandana away.

Harry fought back tears as he asked, "Why are – you doing – this?"

Mr Dunstan had answered, ruffling Harry's hair, "I was once an innocent little boy like you. When I was a bit older than you, my parents did something very bad. Have you heard of the Iron Curtain?"

Harry thought slightly. "Johnny's schoolbook said something about a 'cold war'."

Mr Dunstan nodded. "It was. Viktor here is from one of those countries that the Russians took over. When I was a boy, they ran away with me there. I learnt to be tough. To question no-one. The harsh winters and strict traditions were far too much for me. I learnt to be willing.

"I carved power. I wanted to be like the Russian leaders that held us in a torturous state. When the Berlin Wall fell, I didn't give up. I wanted to control.

"I eventually made contacts in Eastern Europe, then we helped get British goods to a poverty-ridden country. These were what they were desperate for, after years of hardship. I met someone a year ago, who asked for a slave.

"I asked him, 'Where will I get one?' and he told me that orphans made good labour. I asked him why he wanted one and he told me, 'I'm rich and I don't want to pay my servants.' I worked with my associates to find orphans, so we found ways to impersonate people."

Then Mr Dunstan snapped a command to Viktor, who brought a plate down from the table. It was pasta bake with mozzarella.

Mr Dunstan leaned in forward, yanking the rope from Harry's wrists. "Enjoy it, kid. You won't have hot food when you're in storage."

Harry asked, after accepting the food and a plastic knife and fork, "Storage?"

Mr Dunstan told him, "The guy I sold a British orphan to was happy, but he said his friends all wanted slaves as well. He has a _lot_ of friends. So I targeted orphanages and took them to my customers. I got quite a good price for each; each child is equivalent to ten thousand pounds."

Harry asked, "But what will happen to us?"

Mr Dunstan chuckled slightly, before answering, "You're going to a nice, new home in Alaska. How about that?"

Harry whimpered, before Mr Dunstan told him, "When they get to Eastern Europe, they get sent all over the world, mainly in the Baltic area, but anywhere that shipping takes them."

Now, Harry was in the cage again, about six hours later. He had been retied, now just staring at some loud noises outside the door.

He saw the door push open. Bailey was there.

Harry watched as he saw the bald man and the flabby man hold Bailey onto the table. Mr Dunstan came in, asking, as if it were nothing, "OK, what happened?"

The flabby man answered, "He won't stay still."

Mr Dunstan told them, "there's only one way to sort this, you know that." Then he looked right over Bailey. He spoke in English, probably for Bailey's sake.

"It seems as if my customer does not want one. Chickened out. Oh well, you're more than it's worth."

Then something happened, which Harry looked away from, squeezing his eyes tight and trying not to hyperventilate, as he might choke. But he couldn't block out Bailey shrieking.

Then he heard the bald man and the flabby man dragging something across the floor. Mr Dunstan shouted after them, "And clean the blood up on the way out."

That night, Harry had heard everyone else coming in, then saw Mr Dunstan on the phone, pacing the room. He was talking in another language, but he often seemed to be standing right by Harry's cage.

He then called out to the corridor, causing the flabby man to come in.

He was carrying Floss under his arm, her arms bound with blue rope. She was groggy. Maybe she'd just woken up?

Mr Dunstan told the flabby man, "Get her in the cage as well. We're overflowing. Where are the kids locked?"

The flabby man reeled it off. "The girl with the ponytail and one of the twins are in Viktor's room, the boy and the black girl are in my room, the other twin and the specky kid are in Miranda's room, the girl that I drugged is in your room."

"Can't you take them somewhere else?" Mr Dunstan complained. The flabby man answered, "Since Miranda's room is also the office, they needed to go in there. Plus, remember last time we held a child in the bathroom? They nearly got away when the landlord came round saying that the floor was flooded."

Mr Dunstan told the flabby man, "Put the girl in there and cover the cage. The kids need their sleep; they've got a long journey ahead of them."

The flabby man did as Mr Dunstan told him, placing Floss in the cage, near Harry, placing a large, white tablecloth over the top.

When the men had walked out, Harry shuffled over to Floss, whose eyes were fluttering. He grunted, kicking her gently.

Then her eyes began openly slowly. She fidgeted, before blinking at him.

"Harry?" she asked, before she closed her eyes again.

Harry couldn't remember a time when he had felt more helpless.

He just couldn't think about what they could do.

At Ashdene Ridge, May-Li was staring at the boy in Mo's pyjamas.

He was older than Mo, maybe thirteen or fourteen. He had long, straggly hair in front of his face and was a lot skinnier than Mo. He was also extremely pale and looked as if he had been through the wars.

"Who are you?" May-Li demanded, her voice a mixture of surprise and fury. The boy glared back at her.

"Mr Dunstan said to hide under the duvets." His voice was foreign, somewhere in Eastern Europe. But May-Li demanded again, "What's your name?"

"The Yuri does not listen to babbling lady." He folded his arms. OK, May-Li thought, he doesn't know much English. Then she asked, "Where are you from? Why are you doing what Mr Dunstan told you?"

The boy blew some of his hair out of his face, before telling May-Li, "Mr Dunstan promises the Yuri and the others visas if they do what he says."

Well, that explained some things. May-Li asked, "Do you know where Mr Dunstan is now?" she asked it slightly friendlier, just in case he tried to escape, or attack her.

The boy let out a sigh before telling her.

"Mr Dunstan comes to the Yuri's village about three months back. The Yuri lives in cold country, most are farmers. Tough life for the Yuri and the village. Mr Dunstan offers visa for the Yuri and says that if the Yuri comes here, money can be sent to the Yuri's village."

That made sense to May-Li, who asked, "Do you know where he is?"

Yuri – as that seemed to be his name – told her, "Mr Dunstan has rooms over the dock. He can see them from the window. Six, seven children in the rooms with two beds. Then Mr Dunstan takes the Yuri and we come here. Alexei and Viktor – the other men – bring in the Mo-boy from his room and tell the Yuri to hide under the duvet until all children are taken. The Yuri gets bored."

May-Li asked, "Do they have the residents here somewhere?"

Yuri told her, "They said they lock the orphans up."

Then there was a squeal from further down the hallway. May-Li ran out, followed by Yuri.

She stopped at the door to Carmen and Kazima's room. The duvet from Carmen's bed had been thrown on the floor and Tyler and Jody just stood between the beds, confused and furious.

On the beds were two girls, slightly younger than Yuri. Both were also pale and had looked underdeveloped. They wore Carmen and Kazima's long-sleeved pyjamas; around their wrists, their skin had been tainted a darker hue.

"Who are they?" Carmen demanded, more to the girls than anyone else. Then she looked over at May-Li, spotting Yuri. "And who are _you_?"

Yuri looked quite scared, but May-Li gabbled, "No time. Listen, I know what to do now."

Ushering the Ashdene residents onto the minibus, Yuri, possibly out of fear for Tyler, Jody and Johnny and what they may do to him, sat next to May-Li in the front. The two girls, who looked even younger when they sat near each other, were at the very back, talking to each other in their language.

After May-Li explained everything, Johnny asked, "So, they were going to replace all of us while they took everyone?"

Yuri answered him, matter-of-factly, "Not really. There are seven of us. Three girl, three boy. When seven replaced, take rest. But child Mr Dunstan take earlier, that really a girl."

May-Li asked, slightly nervous, "What are the girls' names?"

Yuri answered, "They are Veronika and Alexandra. I meet them when coming to Britain. I am oldest of children."

Tyler asked, quite meanly, "So why did you do this? Why did you help them?"

"Tyler!" May-Li snapped, but Yuri looked downhearted as he replied, "The Yuri does not like to help evil men. But the men say we have visas here, to send money home. They tell us four, five days at best. The orphans…they take them to home. They sell to rich men. Servants. Worse."

Tyler asked, "So why don't you stay there?"

May-Li argued with him, "You don't know about them. Yuri says where he comes from, it's really awful. People like him aren't as well-off as you. At least you can go to school and you live somewhere."

Yuri answered, quietly, "It is true. The Yuri can read, but family can not. Men visit rich holiday area above village, as it is coastline. Rich boats land and goods from factories go on board. Goods made by the Yuri's village, from dawn to beyond dusk. Roads cold. When rich men offer a job, the Yuri cannot refuse."

May-Li then told the Ashdene children, "Just see how lucky you are."

Tyler, Jody and Johnny sat in silence for the rest of the journey while they thought that.

Miranda Wright had just finished with the call from Russia. "OK," she said, just as Mr Dunstan came in, "that was Mr Maksimov. He's willing to pay cash on delivery."

Miranda asked, "Do you want me to get them new clothes or…"

She trailed off, as Mr Dunstan answered. "Well, they're going to be in a box for a week. No point. Anyway, where are they going again?"

Miranda got out her notepad, sighing. Mr Dunstan always forgot.

"When we've dropped them off, they're going to other places. The specky kid, one of the twins and the tall boy, when he arrives, are staying in that country. The other twin is going to Sweden. The other boy is going to Italy. The little boy, the ginger girl and the girl with the ponytail are going to Alaska. The two kids we left behind are going to Japan. The girls that we took the other night are going to Cuba and Panama. I don't need to keep telling you. _You're_ getting everything fixed."

Then Mr Dunstan told her, "That girl we took the other night – the one that fell asleep first – she's a little piece of mischief. If she's not careful, I'm going to send her to Arabia. Let's see how she likes it."

Mr Dunstan knew that he had the upper hand, no matter what happened. He'd carry on with the children from Eastern Europe. Just as he had before.

He'd made them impersonate children at the other two children's homes, making them stay in bed for most of the time, only up when no-one was in, to go to the toilet. He'd give them a small basket of food for the time they'd stay in bed, to keep under their beds. Then, when he'd taken all of the orphans, he'd come back for the Eastern European children. He'd pay them twenty pounds a day for it, the money of which was sent home.

He didn't care that some of the children didn't speak English, that they were doing a dangerous job far from home and that the pay was dreadful. He just wanted his way.

He looked out of the window and grinned. "It seems our little friends have arrived," he said.

**A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews. Oh, Seahorse8? You are good.**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Yuri swallowed as the minibus drew up to the building overlooking the docks. He didn't know what to do. He knew about what this could mean for him.

He closed his eyes tight, trying not to think about the chances of the children being found if the evil men did manage to get them away.

He knew where he came from, between school and the cold, there was little he could do. But he knew that when he had been in the Mo-boy's room, he had liked it.

The endless clutter had been interesting, so when he had a chance, he'd looked at all of it, wondering what it did. He knew what some of the toys were; the boxes that came to his village at Christmas from richer countries had the same things. But some were a mystery to him.

When he'd been under the duvet, getting annoyed and uncomfortable, he'd sometimes written things down on paper he'd found, talking to himself.

He'd been wondering about home and if the money would make his family happy. He'd come over with six other children. Aside from Veronika and Alexandra, there were Nikita, who he had grown up with, Peter, who was in his school, Maria and Anastasia, who had pretended to be the boy at Ashdene Ridge.

The plan had been, as it had with the two other children's homes they'd abducted, would be for the Eastern European children, the ones nearest in height and weight, to pretend to be the first six or seven children abducted, at least one each night, under the guise of being ill, then take the rest on the last night, while locking up any other social workers in basements or sheds. They often killed them as well.

Yuri knew that the evil men were greedy. That they wanted to make others miserable. But being from a country where there wasn't central heating, where the walk to school was over three miles for most of his classmates and the only presents at Christmas were from the charity, he had little choice.

Now, he was at the dock with the lady, May-Li, the tall boy, the girl and the boy with girl's hair. He didn't know what to do.

May-Li asked Yuri, "So, how are they getting the kids to your country?"

Yuri told May-Li, "The same way the Yuri came to Britain; in a box with food and water."

Jody scowled, "Like pets?"

"Worse than pets," May-Li told them, "at least pets are carried in cages and checked on."

Yuri grimaced as he remembered.

The anxiety when the authorities at both sides had checked everything, the utter silence as they waited. The boredom when they spent almost a week in there, in almost silence.

The youngest of them, Anastasia, sobbing when she wanted to go home.

At least when they'd reached the docks, they had a bath.

He dreaded to think what the other children would get when they arrived in his country. He never wanted another child to go through what he'd been through.

May-Li got out of the minibus and told them, "I'm only going to be quick. If I'm not back in fifteen minutes, drive away."

Johnny asked, frowning in confusion, "But I can't drive."

"Well, still get away from here and call the police."

Yuri's eyes widened. "No, not police! They will send the Yuri to prison!"

But May-Li assured him, "We'll help you, but I need to save them first."

She then gingerly walked inside.

Yuri, annoyed, went out of the minibus. "Come back!" Johnny shouted at him, but Yuri turned, angry. He replied, "The Yuri does not want the lady in trouble."

Johnny rolled his eyes before shutting the door.

May-Li was now round at the back. She saw, over the wooden fence, the tiny yard with the back door open. She saw Miranda Wright sitting by the door, watching the TV.

Right, she had to wait until the woman left. Then she could go forward.

She saw Yuri coming round the corner, looking round both ways, before running to her, his long hair flying.

"Yuri!" she hissed, as he came back. He told her, smiling a little, "The Yuri wants to help. No child should be like this."

Then, Miranda Wright went indoors. May-Li watched, before leaping over the fence, helping Yuri over. Then she walked into the living room.

It was an absolute mess.

The living room consisted of an old television, the sort that May-Li had when she was a girl, along with a saggy, sad brown sofa, a coffee table with lots of junk on, including magazines, a plate with somebody's lunch and a First Aid kit, cushions scattered all over the floor and a disgusting smell.

May-Li opened the living room door slowly, looking round. Nobody was here.

Then she saw a trunk in the hallway, right by the wall. She slowly opened it, before stepping back, horrified. "What is it?" Yuri asked, coming up. He saw May-Li looked rather sickened.

He looked in the trunk and grimaced.

Bailey's face looked up at them.

May-Li mumbled, "He's one of the kids…he was taken on the second night."

Yuri nodded, understanding. May-Li asked, "Why…did they kill…"

Yuri answered her, looking right in her face, trying to sooth her, "The Yuri is the oldest boy. No other imposter."

May-Li looked at the trunk again, before nodding.

Then she asked Yuri, "Where are the orphans?"

Yuri told her, "Next room. They have cages in there."

In the minibus, Johnny looked round at the front of the building. He wondered where Tee was, what had happened to her, what they'd…he tried hard not to think about that; he would overreact or give them away.

He had to stay calm to save Tee.

When May-Li got into the downstairs room, with the curtains closed and the table blocking most of her view, she saw the cage. Peering closer, in the dim light, she could see two small figures.

As she went over, she noticed they were Harry and Floss. Floss was fast asleep, turned away from May-Li, but Harry was awake and his eyes were wide.

May-Li scrambled around on the table for a set of keys, then tried all of them, telling Harry, "It's OK, it's fine, we're gonna get you out of here."

Harry was squealing, but May-Li didn't listen; she was just too busy trying to help them. Then, as she opened the cage and was about to untie Harry, she felt something cold and hard on the back of her neck.

She heard a gruff voice tell her, "Get up slowly."

As she did, turning around, she saw the flabby man. Standing behind him was Mr Dunstan, smiling at her evilly.

Mr Dunstan then told her, "Thanks for bringing the children to me."

She heard squealing outside the room and asked, "What are you going to do with them?"

Mr Dunstan smiled. "Sell them, of course."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

Yuri watched from the fence as he saw the three children being led inside. He saw Veronika and Alexandra being spoken to by Mr Dunstan. He was standing over them, arms folded, as they listened to his every word.

Then they nodded and went upstairs.

Mr Dunstan called into the garden, "Yuri!"

Yuri came over the fence and went towards him. Mr Dunstan told him, in Yuri's language, "Just go inside. We'll get you to another children's home soon."

Yuri asked, "But what are you doing to them?"

Mr Dunstan told him, "What I learnt ages ago is that you can not get too attached."

Then he turned round and stormed in, making Yuri feel as if there was no choice but to follow.

When Yuri went in, he saw Miranda Wright pushing a large, yellow, plastic box with a lot of holes in. Yuri asked, in English, "What is in there?"

Miranda answered, "None of your business."

But when she had left, Yuri looked inside. The box was unlocked, letting him look inside. The two twins, lying fast asleep on the blanket at the bottom. Four large canisters of water, two boxes of food and three children's books were also in there, as well as a box of kitty litter.

Yuri remembered which ones these were; their names, as well as photographs of them, were lined up on a board in the office.

The boy-girls didn't stir when Yuri shook them, making him scared. He glanced round and then had an idea.

May-Li was in the back room, where Floss and Harry were still in their cage. She was standing by the wall, Alexei holding a shotgun in her direction. Jody was grabbing onto May-Li, nervous, while Tyler sat on his floor, his legs up by his chin.

Johnny had been taken away, into another room.

Mr Dunstan came in and then told May-Li, "You are a very nosy woman. You should have kept out of it and then you would likely have survived. It's like at the other children's homes; they got too nosy and ended up dead."

May-Li demanded, "What will you do to the children?"

Mr Dunstan answered, "Four children are going on the first shipment. The twins and these two."

He then laughed slightly at their terror.

"You just won't give up, will you, you stupid..."

Then Jody argued, "Leave her alone!" but Mr Dunstan then widened his eyes and frowned. "_You_ are in need of some manners, young lady. Where you're going, you need them."

Mr Dunstan then called outside, "Viktor! Get the box ready!"

But May-Li refused to give up without a fight. Despite the gun still being aimed at her, she walked forward and told Mr Dunstan, "You're a complete monster, do you know that?"

Mr Dunstan smiled at her. "The thing is, I see an offer for money, I take it."

He went on. "Orphans here are little better off than the orphans from the poorer parts of the world. Mistreated, ignored, always blamed, desperate for money. The difference here is that if I offer an orphan as a slave to someone in another country, they're willing to pay more."

He smirked and carried on, listening to the sound of his own voice, "It doesn't matter if I sell them to people as their personal slaves or to rich guys who want a certain kind of child or to people to use in experiments – which, by the way, I've sold for all three reasons – I just get a lot of money for each. Some are willing to pay more than others. Hey, some get a better life; like I said, a few get jobs, to be rich people's personal assistants. Those under eight years old are for adoption only."

May-Li argued, "You're still wrong. You're traumatising them! You're letting them live through agony just so you can get rich!"

Then Viktor dragged in a large, yellow crate. He stood up straight, as Alexei went forward. May-Li, Jody and Tyler all fought and screamed, as Jody and Tyler were dragged from the floor, pushed on the table and injected.

May-Li shrieked, holding her hand out as she fought against Alexei. He punched her in the jaw, making her slide down onto the ground.

Mr Dunstan and Viktor lifted Tyler and Jody into the box, before securing the top. As Alexei carried on attacking May-Li, Mr Dunstan and Viktor dragged the box out.

In the living room, Mr Dunstan saw Yuri standing over the box. "Go upstairs, these lot are going tonight," Mr Dunstan told him, as he dragged the box out.

Yuri waited, before Miranda took the forklift outside and moved the first crate down to the boat. Yuri then walked slowly to the hallway outside, picking up a ring of keys on the hall table.

Smiling, he went upstairs and swung a door open.

Inside were Alexandra and Veronika, as well as the other four children, lying around or sitting on their beds.

Yuri smiled, "I can get you out of here. Just follow me."

May-Li lay on the floor, sobbing, bruised and weak. She felt useless. Jody and Tyler had been taken off, the others would go soon. There was nothing she could do.

But then, Yuri started coming in and went right over to the cage.

Yuri unlocked it as Harry and Floss stared at him. Yuri told them, "It is fine. I am friend." After unlocking the door, he pulled the rope off Harry and Floss, before going to help May-Li up.

"It is fine," he told her, "take children to car. The Yuri will sort out evil men."

May-Li asked, "But...how could...what did you do?"

Yuri told her, "Get out. The Yuri will deal with them."

Alexei, Viktor and Mr Dunstan were all in the office, having taken Mo out and into Viktor's room. All having coffee, they sat down, happy that another operation had gone so well.

Mr Dunstan told them, "Well, there's an orphanage somewhere down in Lincolnshire that's got about twelve kids. Maybe we could go there next."

Viktor reminded Mr Dunstan, "We _do_ have to get buyers first. I think there's a guy in Estonia that wants a preteen boy, to be his assistant."

Mr Dunstan took a sip of his coffee, nodded, then looked down at his coffee in his hand.

"Nice of Yuri to make us coffee," he told them, just as his eyes glazed over.

Yuri was now on the boat. The floor was quite small, for a transport ship, but he knew where the box with Tyler and Jody was. It had just been laid by the main doors.

Pulling the top off, he saw them, lying at separate ends, still asleep.

Yuri tried lifting Jody up, whispering, "Joe-dee? Joe-dee?"

Then he heard something bang. The door had locked.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Yuri banged on the door, yelling, but the sound of the foghorn was too loud. Scraping his hands against the metal door, he looked round hopelessly.

His brain whirred as he tried to think.

Soon, he had dragged Jody out of the box and laid her on the concrete floor, before pulling at Tyler's clothes. The heavier boy still slumped against the wall of the box.

Feeling as if this was hopeless, Yuri then went to Jody and patted her cheek. "Joe-dee!" he yelled, "Wake up! The boat is moving!" then he glanced round. What could he do?

He ran across the floor to the door, hoping someone would hear him on the other side. If not, it looked like they were headed to his country.

On the other side, one of the officers was walking down, to get to his quarters quicker. He paused for a moment, listening to the banging.

"Hey!" he shouted down to the next corridor, where another crew member was walking. "I think there's someone on the other side!"

Unlocking the door, they soon saw Yuri, gasping and a little out of breath.

"What the-" one of them began, trying to grab Yuri's shoulder before he ran off. They shouted, going after him, before they saw Jody lying on the floor.

The boat had to turn back while still in sight of land.

Harry and Floss had run round with the keys, noticing May-Li was too injured to run around herself. They had found each of the children, some still asleep, in the cages. They found Johnny slumped on the sofa, drugged again. Those that were awake had run out instantly or tried to help take out those that were still asleep.

Despite the fact Mo was awake, his legs were slightly weak. That wasn't surprising for someone who'd spent four days in a cage, tied up or drugged.

As the last children to come out, Ryan dragging along Johnny, reached the minibus, Miranda returned. Getting out of the forklift, she ran to the minibus, furious.

"Hey!" she shouted, along with a lot of other words.

May-Li started the car in gear. She was in no state to drive, so Ryan took the wheel. He'd never had lessons, so they drove rather slowly out of the parking area, Miranda screaming and banging on the back of the bus.

Harry asked, "Where are Jody and Tyler?"

May-Li looked in the direction of the dock, as a load of dockworkers, alerted by Miranda's shrieking, came up. She told him, "I think they've just come in."

Within a few minutes, the police and ambulance crews were at the dock. The police had arrested Miranda, who was screaming that she was being used, as well as taking out the criminals from inside the building.

The ambulance crews were checking the children over, as well as insisting that May-Li needed to go to hospital. They said that even if it wasn't life-threatening, she still needed a check-up.

"So does everyone here," the officer insured her, "we need to look at them for all sorts of reasons."

Johnny, who'd woken up by now, glanced over at Tee, who was sitting next to him in the ambulance. "Tee, when we were in their van, I noticed that they had a box. Your bra was in there. They didn't..."

Tee looked confused, before she answered, "I remember the woman complaining that she wanted us to have a bath. She said she'd already gone through our stuff. I guess she must have picked it up."

Johnny looked so relieved that he almost smiled.

By now, Yuri had finished talking to the police. He had been very instant at first, demanding for several minutes that he had never wanted to come here in the first place. But they'd reassured him that he would be sent back anyway, so there was no problem.

Then his eyes widened and he began running towards the house.

"Hey!" the police officer shouted, "What is it!"

Yuri shouted after him, "The boy-girls!"

But before he got there, two officers came out, with the sleepy Toni and Billie.

May-Li looked confused as she said, "I thought they were on the boat."

Yuri explained. "The Yuri lifted the boy-girls out and put them behind a sofa. Then the Yuri put in sofa cushions, plastic chairs, to make it seem as if the boy-girls were there. It just took three minutes."

The police officer asked, "How could you do that in three minutes?"

Yuri shrugged. "When a man works on a farm, he gets strong."

Then he told the police officer, "The Yuri did not want the evil men to take the children. When the little blond boy went in the Mo-boy's room, the Yuri pretend to cough and said that he was next, because Mr Dunstan said. The Yuri then asked for them not to go," he then did a cross, right to left, "and the children have not gone. The Yuri made the evil men sleepy while the loud woman went away."

There was a silence while everyone took this in, while Mo cried, "Hey! You're wearing my pyjamas!"

**A/N: I am sorry this is short, but I promise the next chapter is the last. I know it was a surprise, but did you like my story?**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

It was four weeks later.

Mike's body had been released for the funeral. It had taken a long time due to gathering evidence. The police were still looking for some of the children that Mr Dunstan had taken, but so far, just under half of them had been found.

Yuri had gone back to his country, along with the other children. He'd sent over his respects.

May-Li tried her best that day to help control the children and get them ready for the funeral. While neatly brushing Harry's hair, she asked, "Are you OK now?"

Harry answered, "I get nightmares."

Well, so did she. "Listen, Harry," she told him, "Mike would want us to move on. We just have to stay brave."

Then Harry asked, "When will Mr Dunstan go to jail?"

May-Li answered, "Well, all of the testimonies have been filed, so the trial could be in the next three to four months. But don't worry; they pleaded guilty, so you don't have to go."

Harry smiled for the first time since this began and then told May-Li, "I want to take Geoff to the funeral."

**A/N: I'm sorry it's short, but I hope you liked the story.**


End file.
